THIRD GRADE SPELLING


SORTS 1-7 VOWEL SOUNDS

These lessons cover the complete ORTON chart of vowel sounds

Sort 1: CVC/CVC-e Vowel Sounds

Rule: When a 1 syllable word ends in CVC, it is a short syllable (closed syllable)
When a 1 syllable word ends in CVC-e (silent e-) remember that the silent e makes the vowel long.
CVC short: drop, drip crab, skin, wax
CVC-e long: note, mule, wife,vote, race, wipe
oddball: done, have

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Sort /Week 2: Long A sounds

RULE: In a single syllable words, the LONG A sound can be made with several letter patterns:
CVV-ai, CVV-ay (vowel teams)
CVC-e
The CVC pattern continues to be a short vowel.
When a syllable or word ends with a long vowel it is called an OPEN syllable.

CVV-ai: stain, grain, praise*, nail, gain, raise*
CVV-ay: stay, tray, stray, gray, pray, sway
CVC-e: taste, brave, slave, shape, trade, raise*, praise*
CVC: grand, stand, glass

Spelling City Sort 2 Cloze Activity

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Sort/Week 3: Long O sounds

RULE: In a single syllable words, the LONG O sound can be made with several letter patterns:
CVV-oa CVV-ow (vowel teams)
CVC-e
The CVC pattern continues to be a short vowel.
When a syllable or word ends with a long vowel it is called an OPEN syllable.

CVV-oa: coal coach roast oat loaf roam
CVV-ow: know show blow grow flow throw
CVC: stock blond stomp
CVC-e: froze globe close wrote

OTHER since, science
Spelling City Sort 3

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Sort/Week 4: Long U sounds

Rule: In single syllable words, the long u sound can be made with several letter patterns: CVV-oo, CVV-ui, CVC-e. The CVC pattern continues to be a short vowel. When a syllable or word ends with a long vowel sound, it is called an OPEN syllable.

CVV-oo: scoop bloom smooth broom mood moon spoon tooth
CVC: crust bump skunk trust
CVC-e: cube mute prune
CVVC-ui: fruit suit juice
oddball build build

Spelling City Sort 4


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Sort/Week 5 More long u sounds

Rule: In single syllable words, the long u sound can be made with several letter patterns: CVV-ew, CVV-ue, CVC-e. The CVC pattern continues to be a short vowel. When a syllable or word ends with a long vowel sound, it is called an OPEN syllable. Pay attention to the asterisked words as they are homophones. These words sound the same but have different meaning.

CVV-ew chew dew* flew* knew*screw blew* shrewd strewn
CVC - thumb, plump, brush, stuck, crumb, tusk
CVV-ue due* flue* hue clue
other/oddball- cruel fuel sew

Spelling City Sort 5

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Sort/week 6 Long short I

Rule: In single syllable words, the long i sound can be made with several letter patterns: VCC-igh, CV-y, and CVC-e. The CVC pattern continues to be a short vowel. When a syllable or word ends with a long vowel sound, it is called an OPEN syllable. Pay attention to the asterisked words as they are homophones. These words sound the same but have different meaning.
CVC: quick quit swift
CVC-e: write twice quire spice rise crime
VCC-igh: might high night bright fright flight sight sigh right*
CV-y: why sly

Spelling City Sort 6

Week 7 Review of sorts 1-6


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SORTS 8-13: REVIEW OF PLURAL NOUN RULES

Sort /Week 8 Plural nouns Lesson 1

Rule: When a noun ends in "ch," "sh,", "s," "x," or "z," add "es" to make the plural noun.
-ch: benches speeches watches scratches cjurches peaches sketches ditches branches
-sh: brushes splashes crashes eyelashes leashes ashes

Spelling City Sort Plural Nouns

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Sort 9 More plural nouns Lesson 2

Rule: When a noun ends in "ch," "sh,", "s," "x," or "z," add "es" to make the plural noun. (Otherwise, add "s")
-ch: lunches inches
-sh: bushes flashes wishes rashes dishes swishes brushes
-x: taxes boxes fixes
-s: classes dresses passes
add s: sticks masks

Spelling City Sort

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Sort/week 10: More plural nouns

Rule when a noun ends in "f" or "fe," change the "f" to "v" and add "es"

fe to ves: wife/wives, life/lives, knife/knives
f to ves: leaf/leaves scarf/scarves, wolf/wolves, half/halves, loaf/loaves, self/selves, shelf/shelves
thief/thieves

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Sort/week 11: Plural nouns that end in "y"

Rule: When a word ends in Consonant+ "y," change the "y" to "i" and add "es."
When a word ends in vowel + "y," just add "es."

Consonant + "y:" family/families, berry/berries, army/armies, duty/duties, candy/candies, firefly/fireflies, lady/ladies, party/parties, story/stories, pony/ponies, baby/babies, city/cities, country/countries, pharmacy/pharmacies, reply/replies

Vowel+ "y:" journey/journeys, donkey/donkeys, valley/valleys,alley/alleys, monkey/monkeys
play/plays

Spelling City

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Sort/week 12: Irregular plural nouns

Rule: These plurals are formed by creating new words. There are some patterns as below;

complete word change: child/children, mouse/mice, person/people
vowel change: woman/women, tooth/teeth goose/geese
o add "es:" hero/heroes, potato/potatoes, tomato/tomatoes, echo/echoes
o add "s:" radio/radios
no change: sheep, deer

Spelling City

Week 13: Review of all irregular plural nouns and their rules

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SORTS 14-18 ADDING SUFFIXES

Sort/Week 14: Adding verb suffixes

Rule: When adding a VOWEL SUFFIX to the base word (verb)
1-1-1: double the last consonant and add the suffix
VCe: drop the silent e and add the suffix
VVC: just add the suffix
VCC: just add the suffix

VC or 1-1-1 words: hopped. planned grabbed nodded stepped dropped stirred slammed bragged
VCe or silent e words: hoped saved scored tamed
VVCor vowel teams: chewed shouted scooped joined
VCC: climbed blended
oddball: mixed

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Sort/Week 15: Adding verb suffixes "-ed" with VC-e words and words ending in Y

Rule: When adding a VOWEL SUFFIX "ed" to the base word (verb):
C+Y: Change the y to i and add "ed"
V+Y: just add "ed"
VCe: drop the silent e and add "ed"

C+Y: cry/cried, copy/copied, carry/carried, study/studied, reply/replied, hurry/hurried, multiply/multiplied, marry/married
V+Y: spray/sprayed, stay/stayed, delay/delayed, sway/swayed, obey/obeyed, delay/delayed
VC-e: quote/quoted, skate/skated, hike/hiked, trade/traded

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Sort/Week 16 : Irregular Past Tense Verbs

Present/Past
sleep/slept
throw/threw
slide/slid
drive/drove
shine/shone
freeze/froze
sweep/swept
keep/kept
bleed/bled
draw/drew
know/knew
say/said

Spelling City Irregular Past Tense Verbs

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Sort/Week 17: Adding More Verb Suffixes- "-ing"

Rule Adding the VOWEL suffix "ing" to the base word (verb):
1-1-1: when a 1 syllable base word has 1 short vowel and ends in 1 consonant, double the last consonant and add the suffix
VCe: drop the silent e and add the suffix

1-1-1: set/setting, cut/cutting, stop/stopping, beg/begging, grin/grinning, jog/jogging, hum/humming
silent e: hike/hiking, move/moving, live/living, come/coming, have/having

Spelling City: Adding the suffix "-ING"

Sort 18: Create adjectives and adverbs by adding the suffixes "y" and "ly"

Rule: Add "y" to a noun & it turns into an adjective. Adding "ly" to an adjective turns it to an adverb!

Add "ly:" slowly, happily, quickly, clearly, easily, dimly, quietly, loudly, angrily, noisily, roughly, lazily, smoothly
Add "y" sunny, rainy, snowy, foggy, misty, stormy, daily, chilly, cloudy, windy, breezy,

*It is helpful to underline or write the basewords underneath the spelling word. At this point students should begin to independently recognize whether or not the base word is an "e-drop" or "y change." Sort accordingly.

Spelling City: adding " y" and "ly" to make adverbs and adjectives

Sort 19: Comparative Adjectives


Rule: "-ER" is added to an adjective comparing 2 things, "-EST" is added when comparing 3+ things.

few/fewer/fewest, calm/calmer/calmest, cool/cooler/coolest, close/closer/closest, brave/braver/bravest, pretty/prettier/prettiest, happy/happier/happiest, dirty/dirtier/dirtiest

*It is helpful to underline or write the base words underneath the spelling word. At this point students should begin to independently recognize whether or not the base word is an "e-drop" or "y change." Sort accordingly.

Spelling City: Comparative adjectives

Sort 20: Adding the suffixes "-less," "-ful," "-ness"


-less: worthless, hopeless, harmless, homeless, penniless, restless

-ful: dreadful, colorful, plentiful, painful, grateful, fearful, faithful, thoughtful

-ness: darkness, weakness, goodness, kindness, happiness, illness

combined suffixes: carelessness, thankfulness, peacefulness, helplessness

*It is helpful to underline or write the base words underneath the spelling word. Note should be made that these are CONSONANT suffixes, so the "e-drop" rule does not apply to words ending in silent e. For words ending in "consonant + y", the y still changes to i before the suffix is added.

Spelling City: adding the suffixes -less/ful/ness

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Sort 21: Gentle Cindy: Hard/soft "C" words

Rule: When the letter c precedes an a-o-u, the c makes a hard/"k" sound, when it precedes an a/i/y, the c makes an "s" sound

soft C: cement, circle, cent, cereal, century, cyclist, cylinder, cyclone, cider,

hard C: correct, common, cuff, contest, compass, collect, cancel, custom, color, cube, curve, colony

*Another fun way to sort these words is to separate them into parts of speech

Spelling CIty: Gentle Cindy C words

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Sort 22: Gentle Cindy: Hard/soft "G" words

Rule: When the letter g precedes an a-o-u, the g makes a hard/"guh" sound, when it precedes an a/i/y, the g makes an "j" sound

soft g: gentle, giraffe, genius, general, ginger, gym, giant, germ, Georgia

hard g: gather, gossip, gutter, golden, garage, gape, gallon, guard, guest,garden, get, goalie

Spelling City: Gentle Cindy G words

Sort 23: Contractions

+ not: isn't, aren't, didn't, don't, wasn't, weren't, can't, doesn't, couldn't
+ have: I've, you've
+ is: that's, who's, it's
+ are: you're, we're, they're
+ will: he'll, I'll
oddball: won't

The added lesson to these words is the correct usage of there/their/ they're and it's/its

Spelling City: Contractions

Sort 24: Possessive Nouns

Rule: Add apostrophe + s to make a singular noun show possession. If a noun is plural, add an apostrophe.

Singular Posessive/Plural Possessive
lady's/ladies'
cousin's/cousins'
student's/students'
nurse's/nurses'
teacher's/teacher's
friend's/friends'
*child's/children's
*woman's/women's
*hero's/heroes'
Chris's

*these words follow special/irregular "singular to plural" rules

Spelling City: Possessives

Sort 25: Prefixes: mis-/pre-/re-

Rule: Prefixes are added to base words or word roots.
Pre = before, mis = not, and re = again

pre: preheat, *prefix, *precede, prepay, pretest, preview, *predict
mis: misbehave, misprint, misplace, miscount, mislead, mistreat, mistrust
re: recall, recycle, refresh, remind, remodel, review, reorder

*These are words made of prefix + a word root not a base word.

Spelling City: Prefixes mis/pre/re


Sort 26: Prefixes: ex-/non-/in-/fore-

Rule: Prefixes are added to base words or word roots.
Ex-= out, Non-=not, in-= In or not, Fore-= in front of or before

ex-: *extra, *extend, *express, *exit, *expand, *exclude, exclaim
non-: nonsense, nonfiction, nonstop, nonfat
in-: incomplete, incorrect, indecent, *income, indoor, *indent, insight
fore: forecast, forearm, forehead, foremost, foresee, foreshadow

*These are words made of prefix + a word root not a base word.

Spelling City: Prefixes ex/non/in/fore:

Sort 27: Homophones

Rule: Homophones = Homo (1) + Sound; homophones are words spelled differently (and different meanings) but pronounced the same.

their/there/they're
bury/berry
cellar/seller
very/vary
hire/higher
whether/weather
desert/dessert
aloud/allowed
principle/principal
flower/flower
choose/chews
bored/board
merry/marry

Spelling City: Homophones

Sort 28: Compound Words

Compound words are made up of 2 words put together. They are always written together, with NO space between them!

Words with head: headache, headphones, headfirst, headstrong
words with book: bookcase, bookmark, cookbook, scrapbook
words with snow: snowman, snowflake, snowstorm, snowplow
words with light: lighthouse, daylight, flashlight, *headlight, lightweight
words with down: downhill, downstairs, downpour, countdown

Spelling City

Sort 29: "IE-EI Words"


When making the long e sound, remember," I before e except
  • after c,
  • and when it says long a like in neighbor and weigh."

ie=long e: thief, niece, priest, grief, shield, relieve, yield..
EXCEPTIONS:
cei= long e: receive, ceiling, deceive, conceit, receipt
ei=long e: neither, either, weird, seize (NEWS)
ei= long a: neighbor, eighteen, weigh, sleigh, freight, reign
oddball: mischief

Spelling City IE/EI rule